How To Add Charts And Graphs To WordPress

You’re probably familiar with the adage “a picture is worth a thousand words.” This certainly applies when you’re presenting or explaining complex information.

Using graphs and charts is great for breaking up long text passages, and making technical or statistical data more easily digestible.

You can use tables to present information, but if you want your audience to try and make sense of complex data with figures, trends and relationships quickly, then graphs and charts are perfect for helping them understand the data.

Graphs and charts help you explain complex data so your audience can more easily interpret it!

If you want to display information visually and dynamically on your WordPress site using charts and graphs, this tutorial will show you how to create and add beautiful and interactive graphs and charts to your WP pages and posts that:

• Your site visitors can engage with
• Allows you to upload data from your computer or an online data source
• Will resize dynamically for mobile viewing

If you plan to display visual data like pie charts, comparison bars or trending graphs that contain static information (e.g. historical data), an easier option is to create the graphs or charts using a desktop application, convert these into images and then simply add your image to your web content.

Use WordPress Chart & Graph Plugins

If you want to add interactive bar charts and pie charts to your WordPress posts and pages with no coding skills required, the easiest way to do this is to use a plugin.

Fortunately, there is a great free plugin for WordPress sites that is simple to install, easy-to-use and allows you to not only create beautiful and dynamic charts and graphs, it also lets you populate your charts and graphs with dynamic data.

Visualizer – WP Plugin

Plugin URL

You can install the plugin from your WP dashboard (explained a little further down the page), or download the Visualizer plugin here:

http://wordpress.org/plugins/visualizer

Visualizer Description

Visualizer is a simple, easy to use and powerful tool that lets you create, manage and embed colorful and dynamic graphs into your WordPress posts and pages with a few mouse clicks.

WordPress Visualizer uses Google Visualization API to render charts, which support cross-browser compatibility (adopting VML for older IE versions) and cross-platform portability to iOS and new Android releases, and are based on pure HTML5/SVG technology (adopting VML for old IE versions), so no extra plugins or add-ons are required.

Visualizer also contains a variety of charts that are optimized to address your data visualization needs, including:

• Line chart
• Area chart
• Bar chart
• Column chart
• Pie chart
• Geo chart
• Gauge chart
• Candlestick chart
• Scatter chart

Visualizer is a flexible and customizable plugin, allowing you to use Google Chart Tools with their default setting, or configure an extensive set of options to match your site’s design. A number of options are available for each chart that let you further customize their settings.

Additionally, charts are rendered using HTML5/SVG technology to provide cross-browser compatibility (including VML for older IE versions) and cross platform portability to iPhones, iPads and Android devices. Your visitors can see your charts and graphs on their mobile browsers without having to install any extra software.

Plugin Installation

Inside your WP admin area, select Plugins > Add New from the navigation sidebar menu …

In the Add Plugins screen type in search for “visualizer” and click enter …

Locate the entry in the search results screen and click the “Install Now” button …

Click OK to go ahead …

Activate the plugin after installing it …

You can also activate the plugin in the Plugins section …

After the plugin has been activated, click on Library …

You can also get to the plugin’s ‘library’ screen by selecting Media > Visualizer Library in the admin menu …

This takes you to the plugin’s Visualizer Library page …

After installing the plugin, the library contains no charts.

The next step is to add the charts and graphs to your library that you plan to insert into your posts and pages.

Visualizer Configuration

To add a graph or chart to the Visualizer library, click on the Add New button …

A page will load on your screen with all of the kinds of graphs available.

Select the type of chart or graph you would like to create and click on the ‘Next’ button …

The selected graph/chart type will pop up in a new window.

The next step is to upload a CSV file containing all the data you would like your chart or graph to be populated with …

When creating your CSV data file, make sure that:

• Your first row contains your column headings.
• Your second row includes the series type (e.g. number, timeofday, etc.)

The screenshot below shows how to format your data correctly …

If you are not sure how to format your CSV file, simply download the sample CSV file provided with the plugin.

Once you have completed this step, select the data source (‘From Computer’ or ‘From Web’) in the ‘Upload CSV File’ section.

Upload CSV File From Computer

To upload your CSV file and data from your computer select ‘From Computer‘ …

Use the browser to locate and select your data file and click on ‘Open‘ …

The plugin imports the data from the CSV file and displays it using the graph/chart type you have previously chosen …

Upload CSV File From The Web

To learn how to create, save and publish data to a Visualizer chart or graph using Google Spreadsheet, go here:

• How To Populate Data Using Google Spreadsheet

After importing the data, make sure that all of your information is correct (if not, click on the ‘Back’ button and reupload a new data file containing the right data), and click ‘Next‘ …

Depending on the chart or graph type you’ve selected, the plugin displays a range of customization options …

The plugin gives you total control over your chart or graph, and updates your display in real time …

For example, the pie chart offers various configurable options, including:

• General Settings – Configure chart title settings, font styles, tooltip, and legend.
• Pie Settings – Create 3D pie charts, draw slices counterclockwise, set the text content displayed on the slice, create a “donut” pie chart, rotate the chart’s “start” angle and set the slice border color.
• Residue Settings – Set the ‘Visibility Threshold’ (the slice relative part, below which a slice will not show individually.), ‘Residual Slice Label’ (the label for the combination slice that holds all slices below slice visibility threshold, e.g. “Other”), and ‘Residue Slice Color’.
• Slice Settings – Customize the ‘Slice Offset’ (how far to separate the slice from the rest of the pie), and ‘Slice Color’.
• Layout & Chart Area – Configure the layout (total size of chart) including the width and height of the chart as a number of percentage, background color for the main area of the chart and the chart border width and color, and the placement and size of the chart area (where the chart itself is drawn, excluding axis and legends).

Once you’re satisfied with how your graph or chart looks, click Create Chart …

Your new graph or chart will now be added to the ‘Visualizer Library’ section …

Note that every visual element is given a unique ID displayed as a shortcode. As you will see shortly, this allows you to easily embed graphs and charts into your content …

Charts and graphs added to the Visualizer Library can be accessed by their type …

After adding an element to the ‘Visualizer Library’, you can edit it, clone it, or delete it …

Plugin Usage

Once you have created a element and added it to the Library, adding it to your content is very simple.

First, create a new post or page (or open an existing one) …

Next, place your mouse cursor where you would like to insert your visual element into the content and click on the ‘Add Media‘ button …

Click on ‘Visualizations‘ …

Find the graph or chart you want to insert into your content and click on the “insert” icon …

This adds a shortcode for the element into your content …

Once you have finished adding the visual element, click on Publish to publish (or update) your post or page …

After updating your page/post, click ‘View post’ to see it …

Your page or post will display your visual element in your content …

As mentioned previously, Visualizer also displays responsive charts and graphs for mobile viewers …

As you can see, WordPress Visualizer lets you insert and customize dynamic charts and graphs in your content. You can modify your data and the changes will automatically be reflected throughout your site. This makes adding interactive chart information in WordPress very efficient.

The plugin developers have created a number of step-by-step tutorials you can use to learn how to edit, customize and use WordPress Visualizer.

For additional tutorials on editing, copying, deleting and adding data to your charts, go to the site below:

• WordPress Visualizer – Additional Tutorials

Congratulations! Now you know how to add appealing and dynamic pie charts and graphs to your WordPress posts with WordPress Visualizer plugin.

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